CyanogenMod team dropping support for Samsung Vibrant because of 911 issues

The Samsung Vibrant (the first of the original Galaxy S devices to hit the U.S.) is no longer supported by CyanogenMod. According to developer Abhisek Devkota, issues with the way the radio interface layer interacts with the audio layer leads to a loss of the ability to dial 911, and this issue can not be solved without source code from Samsung. In his own words:

We are no longer supporting the Vibrant due to the inability to dial 911. We consider the issues related to this unresolvable without source code from Samsung related to the Radio interface layer and its interactions with the Audio layers and have taken the decision to no longer support this. We apologize for the inconvenience and strongly suggest that Vibrant users use a Samsung ROM due to the 911 issues with any ROMs based on open source code.

We'll have to second his recommendation -- if you're currently using CM or another AOSP-based ROM on your Vibrant, you should look at Samsung TouchWiz based ROMs as an alternative. Having cool open-source software on your phone is great, but not at the expense of losing the ability to call emergency services. It was fun while it lasted though, and thanks for all the hard work gentlemen!

The folks over at Lookout have warned us about a new malware threat, this time targeted at users outside of North America. The RuFraud malware will sign up users in Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Czech Republic, Poland, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Estonia, Great Britain, Italy, Israel, France, and Germany to a premium SMS service by hiding inside apps that pretend to be download helpers for popular games and utilities, or wallpaper apps from movies like Twilight. This particular bit of malware does not affect users in other countries.

While most of the affected applications are found on file-sharing sites and unofficial markets, some have appeared in the official Android Market. The first batch were removed by Google after Lookout contacted them, and having only a "handful" of downloads they did not affect very many users. Unfortunately, 13 new apps were later uploaded that had been downloaded over 14,000 times before they were pulled. Lookout has been updated to remove and clean these apps from your phone if you downloaded them, and we expect other malware scanning applications will have followed suit.

A quick tip: It really sucks when popular applications (or Nexus phones) aren't available in your location. We understand. But any app that claims to be a helper to download an app that's otherwise unavailable is definitely suspicious. Don't use them. If the apps are free, ask your friends. Ask on forums. Root your phone, or use an app that disguises your location and opens the Market. I'm not condoning piracy here, but I'm a realist -- if you're going to circumvent measures that keep these apps from you, do it the smart way.

Adobe Flash Player for Android updated with bug and security fixes, still no Ice Cream Sandwich support

Adobe has updated Flash Player for Android to version 11.1.111.5, which fixes video streaming issues on the Galaxy S II, adds support for 1080p video on Tegra 3 devices like the Transformer Prime, and generic fixes for video decoding and playback. It's a recommended update, even if you don't own one of the aforementioned devices, so hit the market and update or grab the link after the break. Adobe did promise to keep supporting the Android Flash Player, and while nobody doubted them, it's still nice to see them hold true to their word.

Unfortunately, this update doesn't yet enable Flash on the Galaxy Nexus or any preliminary ICS build for other devices. We still expect to see that soon, and we'll let you know as soon as it's available.

Verizon prepping a 4G LTE Xperia Play?

Are you a fan of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, but not so much a fan of it only being a 3G device on Verizon? You might well soon get to have the best of both words, if this internal traning registration is on the level. We're told the Dec. 12 and Dec. 14 training indeed is for Big Red, and we've confirmed with a second source that indeed an LTE Xperia Play exists.

Now that we have that out of the way, the HTC Amaze 4G has a new OTA starting to roll out today, one that brings Wifi calling and a few software fixes to users of the best looking phone ever made. Besides Wifi calling, the fixes are:

Improvements to Bluetooth connection

Clock widget not updating with time zone change

Improvement to Twitter and Peep application

Improved Wifi connection

So we're not looking at a huge milestone in the software development of the Amaze, but take it from me -- Wifi calling is sweet and reason enough to look forward to this one. You'll see it soon (the initial rollout begins today, and continues until Jan. 20 2012), and it promises to be a painless update. Like all promises, that can be broken, so keep an eye on the Amaze 4G forums to stay abreast of any issues folks are finding.

How to use Google Music

Make no mistake -- Android is multimedia-centric, and it does a darn fine job of it. Whether you want to copy media to your device's storage, or want to stream from the cloud, Android, especially since the release of Ice Cream Sandwich, can turn your phone or tablet into a great media player. We're going to have a look at using Google Music, Google's storage-locker style streaming music application.

Read on for a walkthrough of how to use Google Music on the web and adding media, as well as playing it back on your Android device.

Samsung announces 300 million handsets sold in 2011

Samsung announced today that it has reached a major milestone in global sales, with 300 million handsets sold in 2011. Driving the momentum, Samsung says, is its Galaxy S line, which includes the original Galaxy S devices as well as the Galaxy S II smartphones, the latter having reached 10 million units sold faster than any device in the company's history. With the American release of the Galaxy Nexus, ongoing patent battles with Apple, and next year's revamped Galaxy tablets all on the horizon, it'll certainly be worth keeping an eye on whether or not Samsung can keep its momentum going into 2012. The full presser follows the break.

Video unboxing of the Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Yeah, yeah. We don't do unboxings. We know. But that doesn't mean it's not awesome when our readers uboxing unreleased phones. And that's what we've got here -- a proper (and rather decent) video unboxing of the Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus. (Only makes sense since we're seeing some sold a tad early, no?)

Not a whole lot here you wouldn't already know from reading our Galaxy Nexus review. And, yes, it's yet another teaser for a phone that still doesn't have an official release date. (Dec. 15 is the current unofficial favorite.)

Verizon still doesn't have the Galaxy Nexus for sale yet, but that didn't stop Best Buy from selling a couple to two lucky AC forum members this morning. Members sfbates and dubya.t both got their Nexus on, and are in the forums talking it up. The Best Buy folks went to great lengths to sell these, as the normal procedures didn't work out, and we imagine very few people got this lucky this afternoon, as others reporting their Best Buy experience are all coming up empty handed.

Congrats, fellas, and thanks for sharing with everyone in the forums. Enjoy those rare animals and feed our addiction with pics and details until Verizon decides to take our money. If you want to join in the fun and talk to who may just be the luckiest Android geeks in America, hit the forums and give them a shout!

Do not buy this Verizon Galaxy Nexus for $1,200

Update: And as we awake this fine Sunday morning, the listing's been pulled.

We've seen a lot of crazy things when it comes to the Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus. We've seen them pop up and mysteriously disappear from Cragislist, gone without a trace. And now one's made it to eBay for the high, high price of $1,200. It goes without saying, but that's just ridiculous. That's a good $500 or so over what you'd pay for an unlocked GSM Galaxy Nexus. And as much as we love LTE, it's not worth paying that much more to have it a week or so -- assuming it's indeed launched next week.

LG Nitro HD review

LG is an Android manufacturer that all too often goes unnoticed. But in reality, LG has been churning out devices that can compete with the best of them. One such device is the LG Nitro HD, LG's latest flagship smartphone that has found a home on AT&T's oven-fresh LTE network. LG hasn't created a million-dollar ad campaign as Samsung has for its Galaxy S II line, and it doesn't come with a trademark catchphrase like Motorola's DROIDs. Despite its low profile, though, the LG Nitro is a remarkable device that is quite possibly one of the fastest Android experiences available on AT&T today.

Keep on reading for our complete LG Nitro HD and where it stands in the scheme of things.

The 720p HD display is marvelous. The processor has yet to meet a task it can't handle. AT&T's fledgling LTE network is capable of mind-blowing speeds.

The Nitro HD's build quality feels subpar. The camera and camcorder leave a bit to be desired, as does LG's custom skin. Oh, and the battery life is a victim of the LTE vampire.

If you're an AT&T customer looking for the most beefed-up Android device the carrier has to offer, you've found it. It's thin, it's light, and it's as fast as they come. It doesn't come with the pomp and circumstance of the other "4G" devices on AT&T right now, but it quite possibly might be the network's fastest device.

We've all seen this by now -- it's webOS booted up on an EVO 3D, and it's got everyone in a tizzy. While webOS fans who have spent decades (it seems like decades anyway) having the horrible hardware of the Pre and Pixi have reason to be excited, everyone seems to be getting ahead of themselves.

Think of it as an early SDK port of ICS, like the ones we saw last month -- those ones where radios, cameras, even the touch interface didn't work. The EVO 3D has the same basic internals as the TouchPad, so getting webOS booting (which is a far cry from actually running) was an awesome project to start on. Now that Mr. Hope and others will be getting source code, expect this sort of thing to happen for real. In the meantime, stop bugging your favorite webOS and Android developers and let them enjoy the day -- it will come soon enough.

What an open-source webOS means for Android

You might have heard -- webOS just got open-sourced today by HP, joining the world of great, free software like Ubuntu, Firefox, and Android. It's a pretty big deal for some people, including all those developers you see doing wonderful things with the software on their electronic devices. HP made the right decision here: let the fate of webOS be in the hands of those who know it best -- like the fellows at webOS Internals. I'll bet there's one hell of a party going on in Oz this evening.

But what does that mean for Android is what we're interested in, because we're Android Central and that's what we do. The answer? Maybe a lot, maybe not so much. While we don't know what open-source license HP plans to release webOS under (remember things like HTC Sense and iOS started as open-source, but the license allowed them to keep code changes to themselves), as it sits now any code that is owned by HP should be made available to manufacturers and developers. Some of the proprietary bits will stay closed, and provided as something that plugs in to the running system, but those are almost always hardware- or network-specific bits, so we're not too concerned.

The big and important parts will be available for everyone from the CyanogenMod team to Motorola to use and develop further. You read that right -- we're all thinking "Wow, the CM guys can port stuff from webOS into CM9!" and we're right, but more important is that so can Google and all the OEMs out there. Soon there will be a few million lines of new code for engineers to look through and cherry pick the best parts from to add to their existing projects -- and that's a damn good thing.

That doesn't mean it will happen though. The cores of Android and webOS are pretty different, and things won't just drop in and work. If it were that easy, we'd already have a bastardized version of Meego, Symbian and Android running on some awesome phone from the far east (and I'd totally be using it). But having the code sitting there so people can see how it's done certainly makes it possible, and very interesting. And to be honest, simply open-sourcing webOS isn't going to save it. If someone (like Google or Samsung) steps in and nurtures it and keeps pumping money and ideas into it, it will keep getting better and better. If nobody but hobbyists cares, it will wither and disappear, even if those hobbyists are talented geniuses like the webOS Internals guys (and gals).

We don't know what will happen here. Just because something can be done doesn't mean it will be done, and with everyone making money hand over fist with Android there isn't a lot of incentive for big changes. I'm sure we'll see some ideas brought over, and someone will start porting webOS to things like the Xoom or Galaxy S II, but the big picture may not change a whole lot. It's going to be an exciting time, and we're lucky that HP made this multi-billion dollar gift to the open source community.

HP's webOS joins Android in the land of open-source operating systems

Android just got a new friend in the open-source playground. HP today announced that the beloved-but-floundering mobile operating system will released to the open-source community.

"HP plans to continue to be active in the development and suppport of webOS," the company said. Like the core Android OS, webOS will be made available under an open-source license.

Exactly what that means in regards to webOS as a competitor to Android? We'll just have to see. Certainly it's great news for anyone who likes to tinker -- and you know how Android folks like to tinker. Will it overtake Android as the current embedded OS of choice? We will see some sort of mutant Android-webOS hybrid emerge from these murkey depths? (And how cool would that be?) We'll just have to see.

There's loads more, including the official announcement, at the link below.

Not so much ...

This the only Verizon Galaxy Nexus post we intend on doing today, unless actual news breaks. But it was just too good to pass up. This store in Memphis, Tenn., apparently didn't get the message. Either that or it has a cruel sense of humor. Either way, it'll be here when it's here.

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